Paralysis in the Ports

From the headquarters of the International Longshoremen's Association in New York one midnight last week flashed the word to nearly 400 of the union's locals: strike. Shortly before, I.L.A. President William V. Bradley had waddled out of a negotiation session with the New York Shipping Association to give the reason: I.L.A. contracts had expired and "the employers have failed to grant [our] just demands." That morning 25,000 New York longshoremen responded to the strike call, and by week's end they had been joined by 35,000 other I.L.A. members from Portland. Me. to Brownsville, Texas. For the first time in the I.L.A.'s checkered history it had effectively paralyzed every major port along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts (and there was the possibility that the strike might spread to the West Coast, where members of Harry Bridges' International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union tied up a dozen ships as a gesture of "sympathy").

Just what Captain Bradley's "just" demands were became clearer when federal mediators hurried I.L.A. and N.Y.S.A. representatives into further bargaining sessions. Agreement had already been reached on some sticking points (welfare benefits, dues checkoff), and others seemed negotiable (wages, work-gang size). The big obstacle: I.L.A.'s demand that the present system of "pattern" bargaining--i.e., each port negotiates separate agreements with the I.L.A., using the New York contract as a guide--be replaced by a master contract allowing the union to negotiate major issues on a coastwide basis. When the N.Y.S.A. turned down this point on the ground that it could only negotiate for shippers in its own area, the union reduced its demand to a contract covering all Port of New York shippers who also operate in other ports. One reason why the I.L.A. will fight hard for a coastwide deal: such a contract will make it more difficult for the rival, reform-minded A.F.L. International Brotherhood of Longshoremen--with its principal strength in New York--to establish locals elsewhere.

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